- Title: XIII – Mousetrap
- tv.com: link
With his double apparently dead, but still be haunted by the doppelganger’s voice inside his head, XIII (Stuart Townsend) searches frantically for the last Tesla letter hidden somewhere on a freighter bound for China. While on-board XIII meets Chinese sailors (George Chiang, Oscar Hsu, Derek Kwan) with whom his double has made this trip to Shanghai several times before. Not only are they going to great lengths to keep something from him in the ship’s hold, but they remark on “Victor’s” obvious change in personality.
After being kidnapped by Grier (Lisa Berry), Betty (Roxane Mesquida) finds herself in London held against her will in the home of her estranged father (Michael Ironside) whom she hasn’t seen in years and at the mercy of a psychiatrist (Camilla Scott) both of whom seem intent on treating her for delusions and a drug addiction she doesn’t have. However, nothing about her perceived situation is actually true as the world she is trapped in is nothing more than smoke and mirrors and she is actually far closer to XIII than either of them suspects.
During one of her drug-induced episodes, Betty stumbles upon a weird ritual in her father’s home involving President Carrrington (Stephen McHattie), Amos (Greg Bryk), and several others all wearing blank white masks and their continuing behind-the-scenes control of the world. As XIII breaks into the hold to discover the simulation of Betty’s father’s home, Betty is rescued from a similar simulation site in Shanghai by the very much alive Victor. As XIII is put back under sedition to continue searching for the letter aboard the ship, Victor and and Betty agree to work together to stay alive and protect their unborn baby growing inside her.
The episode’s final twist works as I suspected Betty would indeed be below deck in the ship’s hold. The reasoning for the second facade of her father’s home is a little shaky, but I’m willing to accept that Betty’s father (if that is who he really is) needed to be on the boat for his part of the simulation. The fact that Victor is still alive, but apparently on the run, means XIII’s doppelganger’s true motivations may be more complicated than we’ve been led to believe so far.